Smile with /A/
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Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence a_e = /A/. In order to be able to read, children must learn to recognize the spellings that map word pronunciations. In this lesson children will learn to recognize, spell, and read words containing the spelling a_e. They will learn a meaningful representation (smiling with the sound /A/) they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence a_e = /A/.
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Materials:
-Graphic image of a cheesy smile
-cover-up critter; whiteboard or smartboard for modeling and individual Elkonin boxes for each student
- letter manipulatives for each child and magnetic or smartboard letters for teacher: a, b, c, e, g, l, m, p, s
-list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: grace, blame, space, grape, snake, plane; decodable text: Jane and Babe and assessment worksheet.
Procedures:
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1. Say: In order to become expert readers we need to learn the code that tells us how to pronounce words. We have already learned to read short vowel words with a, like tap, and today we are going to learn about long A and the silent e signal that is used to make A say its name, /A/. When I say /A/ I think of a very very happy girl smiling ear to ear saying “AAAye!” [show graphic image].
2. Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /A/, we need to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /A/ in words, I hear a say its name /A/ and my lips form a smile like this. [Make vocal gesture for /A/.] I’ll show you first: space. I heard a say its name and I felt my lips make a smile [smile big]. There is a long A in space. Now I’m going to see if it’s in crab. Hmm, I didn’t seem to smile when I said that word. Now you try. If you hear /A/ I want you to smile super super big!! If you don’t hear /A/ I want you to frown and say, “That’s not it.” Is it in trash, flame, pants, coat, snack, brake, brave? [Have children put a finger on each end of their mouth when they hear /A/ and smile with it.]
3. Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /A/ that we’ll learn today. One way to spell /A/ is with the letter a and a signal e at the end of the word to tell me to say A’s name. [Write a_e on the board.] This blank line here means there is a consonant after a, and at the end of the word there is a little silent e signal. What if I want to spell the word plane? “If I fly on a plane, I will probably fall asleep after take-off” Plane means a physical plane in this sentence. To spell plane in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /p//l//A//n//e/. I need 4 boxes. I heard that /A/ just before the /n/ so I’m going to put an o in the 3rd box and the silent e signal outside the last box. The word starts with /p/, that’s easy; I need an p. Now it gets a little tricky so I’m going to say it slowly, /p//l//A//n//e/. I think I heard /l/ so I’ll put a t right after the p. Now I am at /A/, hmm . . . /p//l//A//n//e/, I have one empty box now. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /p//l//A//n//e/.] The missing one is /n/ = n.
4. Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for ate. What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? What about silent e, did you remember to put it outside the boxes? I’ll check your spelling while I walk around the room. [Observe progress.] You’ll need three letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound that goes in the first box. Then listen for /A/ and don’t forget to put the signal silent e at the end, outside the boxes. Here’s the word: fame. [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: f – a – m – e and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: cape; Batman needs a cape to fly up in the sky. [Have volunteer spell it in the letterbox on the front board for children to check their work. Repeat this step for each new word.] Next word. Listen to see if this word has /A/ in it before you spell it: rack; Be sure to hang your clothes up on a rack. Did you need a silent e? Why not? Right, because we don’t hear a say its name. We spell it with our short vowel a. [volunteer spells it on the front board.] Did you remember to spell /k/ with a ck? Now let’s try 4 phonemes: brave. One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: scrape; If I scrape my knee, I will need a bandaid. Remember to stretch it out to get this tough word.
5. Now we are going to read a book called Jane and Babe. This is a story of a lion named Babe and this woman named Jane. In the beginning of the story, Jane is trying to wake up Babe. Jane and Babe are good friends. Lets pair up and take turns reading Jane and Babe and finding out what they like to do together. [Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages each while teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. After individual paired reading, the class rereads Jane and Babe aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]
6. That was a fun story. What does Jane and Babe like to do? Right, they like to run and race in the cage but Babe usually wins. Before we finish up our lesson about one way to spell /A/=a_e. I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, we have some words missing. Your job is to look in the box of word choices and decide with a_e word fits best to make sense of the short story.
Resources:
Jane and Babe. Reading genie: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/bookindex.html
Cook, Abby. Jake takes the cake. http://aac0020.wixsite.com/abbylessondesigns/beginning-reading
Assessment worksheet:
